Hello!

Hi everybody!

Sorry about the delay on the post, we've been moving in! Yes, we found our condo and moved in! We have a great 3 bedroom condo in Tanjong Katong (5-10min walk from Paya Lebar MRT) on the 7th floor of our building, with views over the pool, the tennis court and the city. There are 4 supermarkets within a 10min walk, a wet market with fresh food and fish really cheap, and heaps of hawker markets nearby. And we're smack bang between the CBD and Changi Airport, which is great and handy.

Besides settling in, we've also done a few touristy things. We've been to Jurassic.....i mean Jurong Bird Park. It actually felt like Jurassic Park, with all the trees and open air enclosures. The local birds and water birds just fly around, with only the rarer/unfriendly birds in aviaries. There was a big lorikeet enclosure with the feel of a butterfly house, where you could feed the birds for a small fee. Even though I don't like birds at all, I was very impressed with it. Here are a few pics of it:

These macaws were just perched inside the main entry

Me petting the parks "lucky" bunnies

Kids feeding parrots in the Lori Lodge

Statues in the African Rainforest exhibit

The Flamingo Walk

We also visited the Singapore Zoo. It has a similar lay-out to Jurong Park, with the monkeys swinging in the trees over your head. We saw a sea-lion show that was good, and as with the Bird Park, you can interact with some of the animals. We saw people feeding the giraffes and signs that advertised elephant rides. They were redoing the polar bear exhibit, so we didn't get to see them. Here are a few pics of the zoo:

These little fellas were so close, you could almost touch them!

Proboscis monkeys checking out a zoo visitor

Andrew making a monkey of himself with Proboscis monkey statues

Beautiful male white tiger

Pygmy hippo! Cute!

There were so many baboons!

Ranga!! Lol.

Cheetahs kicking back and chilling out

This giraffe was getting fed papaya by zoo visitors

This elephant was standing by itself and dancing!

Sea-Lion show

Besides the 2 zoos, I went out for a girly expat night on the town. It was pretty good, but as I'm not much of a drinker, I didn't enjoy myself as much as the other girls did. I'm having coffee with another girl next week, so hopefully that will be good. Other than that, everythings been good. We're hoping to go to the Night Safari this weekend, so I will have more pictures to post then.

Catch ya later,

xoxo Mandi

Happy CNY!

Howdy!

Happy Lunar New Year! Its been a good couple of days for us here in Singapore. Thursday was Chinese New Years Day, and Andrew's (and Robyn's) birthday. The entire island pretty much closed down on Thursday and Friday. Andrew went to work on his birthday as well (poor him!). I caught up with my sci-fi and reading lol. I've gotten intrigued with steampunk after reading a steampunk romance, and I've decided to break out my jewellery making mind and give steampunk jewellery a go. Andrew finished work early, and we made our way to the Singapore Flyer. For those who don't know, the Singapore Flyer is a giant observation ferris wheel, similar to the London Eye, but bigger by about 30mtrs. We got some great shots of the view, and we even saw Indonesia!

Carriage on the Singapore Flyer

Future Botanical Gardens

City views

Formula 1 pits

Us on the Flyer

Casino

Singapore Soccer Ground

This is my fave shot. Singapore doesn't have a long dusk, so this is just before it went full dark.

After our flight, we went and had dinner at a restaurant called "New York New York" and had burgers. It was the first time in Singapore I'd had proper beef (I'm not counting McD's or Burger King), and it was quite nice. We came back to the hotel afterwards and had birthday cake! I found a swiss roll with 3 layers: chocolate, strawberry and pandan. I wasn't sure of what pandan tasted like, but we gave it a go. Its a mix of floral, pine and citrus, and its very tasty. A lot of the cakes over here are flavoured with it. Here are some shots of Andrew with his cake:

Mmmm.......Triple Flavour Swiss Roll.......

Andrew taking a deep breath.......

........and blowing out his "candles".......

.......then cutting his cake.

On Friday we didn't do much cos the island was still on holiday. I went out for a walk in the afternoon, then cooked dinner at night. On Saturday we went to Suntec Shopping Centre to have a look, got lost, found our way, then decided to go to Holland Village. We've heard heaps of good things about it, and that its a really big expat area. To be honest, we were really disappointed in it. Holland Village is only 3 short streets of  pubs, restaurants and coffee shops, and most of the shops were mainstream shops like Starbucks, Harry's Gastro Bar, and Cold Rock. But we did get a shot of the only Dutch item we saw:

Today we stayed at the hotel for most of the day, and went out for a walk at lunch time. We went to the hawker centre for dinner, and had a coconut waffle each for dessert. Andrew had peanut butter on his and I had strawberry jam on mine. It was really cheap, only $1.50 per waffle!

Be back soon!

Mandi xoxo

Slow Go

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't written for awhile, but not much has happened since my last post. Last Tuesday I caught up with another expat Aussie girl for coffee, and that went really well. I also went out on Friday night to an expat meet-up, but the taxi got me lost and by the time I got there, nobody was waiting for me! *sob* I was more upset with the taxi driver than with the girls. Not to worry, I'll catch up with them eventually!

Other than that, I've done a bit of househunting, and today we started to organise the paperwork for a unit! Yay! Its a nice newly renovated 3 bedroom condo with a full size kitchen! It has been so hard looking for a place that has a decent kitchen. Most of the units I've looked at have had a stovetop, or nothing at all, since a lot of Singaporeans eat out all the time. The condo even has a nice little room for Fox and Ty. Hopefully we'll be able to move in next week.

In other news, its Andrew's 24th birthday tomorrow! And of course, Robyn's :-D. We're planning to use one of our wedding gift vouchers tomorrow night, the one for the Singapore Flyer (Thank you Sarah and Craig!), but we're going to double check and see if its open, because tomorrow is also Chinese New Year and its a public holiday in Singapore on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th. If we go, I will post some photo's of the view.

Thats it from me today, catch you all later!

xoxo  Mandi

Sore Feet.....

Hey everyone!

Its been a pretty good week. Thursday afternoon I went looking for scrapbooking shops. Found a couple, but they haven't got any of the supplies that I use. I may have to get them online. And I saw that "Made with Love" didn't have a coffee shop! Bad info from the internet! I had a good look around Plaza Singapura, found another bookshop, then headed back to look at the clothing shop. I couldn't find the shop! I walked up to Andrew's work and decided to wait for him and the iPad. I'd been there for about 5-10min when I got a message from Andrew saying he went to Sim Lim with the guys from work! Argh! So I walked back down to where I thought the shop was, still couldn't find it! I rang up Andrew and got him to check the address. Got the address, found the shop, went into the shop, only to be told that all the clothes in my size won't be ready til next week! Argh again!

Friday was a bit slower, decided that I'd relax in the morning and walk around in the afternoon. Went househunting with our agent, didn't really like any of them (too much money and a bit gaudy). Met up with Andrew at Clarke Quay and then we went and found some dinner.

Saturday morning Andrew went back down to the Ministry of Manpower to pick up his pass. I got a phonecall from him asking me to bring down his paperwork that he'd left behind. I walked it down to him, then we hopped on the train to Little India. Had a good look around, a lot of nice handicraft centres and tailors. Andrew wants to go back and get a suit made. We continued on to Sim Lim and I bought a mouse for my MacBook. Sim Lim is a shopping centre of about 7 levels with nothing but phones, computers and camera's, plus all the affiliated equipment required. Kept walking onwards and found ourselves in Bugis, and went to the Bugis Street Market. Its apparently the biggest street market in this part of Asia, and it probably had half of the population crammed into it! Its like a tight compacted market, similar to Paddy's in Sydney or Queen Victoria in Melbourne, but really long and very hot from all the people packed in. Had a look at the local plaza, bought a comic book....I mean "graphic novel".....then came back to the hotel and had a nap. Went and had a swim, then had dinner at the hawker centre.

Sunday morning we slept in, due to our sore feet from the day before. We went out for a walk at about lunch time, had lunch, then hopped on a train and got off at a random station, just to see what was there. The station we got off at was Paya Lebar, and there was an oldish mall that we explored, and a little street market. We hopped back on the train and got off again, this time at Lavender. Nothing really there but office blocks. Then we went to City Hall station and had a look at Raffles City SC. Andrew got 1kg bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms for work. Then we headed back home and I made char siu pork rice and sweet chilli chicken stirfry.

Andrew and Bunny at Paya Lebar

Andrew with ?Emperor? at Marina Square

Today I went to Funan Digitalife Mall and had a bit of a look. Its a bit like Sim Lim, but a bit nicer, a bit more expensive and not as many people. Then I went and had lunch with Andrew. Came back to the hotel and did the laundry. We just came back from dinner, and we had Indian from a restaurant under the  hotel, followed by an ice-cream in bread on Clarke Quay.

Talk to you soon,
Mandi

M.o.M.

Hey everyone!

We've had a good couple of days this week. On Tuesday, I walked with Andrew to the Ministry of Manpower at Collyer Quay so he could organise his employment pass. The place has a great name right? Andrew and I were making a lot of Jamie Durie jokes lol. They're kinda like Centrelink, only faster! After that, I walked Andrew to work then started looking around at the shops. I found another Cold Storage supermarket nearby. After that I came back to the hotel to escape the midday heat, which hits at about 1pm. Andrew had drinks after work with his colleagues, and I got some dumplings and butterfly buns from the hawker market for dinner.
Wednesday was a slower day. I walked with Andrew to work, then came back to the hotel and started tinkering on the computer. I'm going househunting with our agent tomorrow, so I talked to the agent and organised it. I also joined an expat forum to meet other expat girls to hang out with. I cooked char siu and sweet chilli chicken wings with brown jasmine rice and marinated onion for dinner. Lately, whenever I've been cooking, I only use 3 sauces: soy, char siu and sweet chilli, but I use them in different concentrations for different flavours. And there's one thing I can't find in the local supermarkets: minced garlic in the jar. I used to use it all the time in Australia, and I haven't been able to find it! I might request it in our first care package lol.
This afternoon I'm going to a plus size clothing shop near Collyer Quay called "Big and Beautiful". Its one of the most popular shops for larger ladies, and its very reasonably priced. Most pieces are under $40, over that if you want evening wear. It reopens tonight, so hopefully I'll find some nice pieces. I also want to go to a scrapbooking shop in Orchard Rd called "Made with Love". After having a look on the net, they seem to be the most well stocked, and they have classes, groups and a coffee shop!

I'll write back later,
Mandi

Down Time

Hey everyone!

We've had a slow couple of days this week. On Sunday, we decided to relax at the hotel for most of the day. We went down to the hawker market and got some lunch, then we went and bought me a cheap mobile phone. Came back to the hotel and watched some TV, then Andrew went to the hotel's gym and worked out for a bit. I made pork bolognese for dinner, and we ate that whilst watching "Black Butler". Afterwards, I went for a swim. Today was even slower. Andrew and I had breakfast, then he went to work and I went up to the room. I pretty much just did emailing and keeping cool today. The hotel maid came in and cleaned whilst I had my lunch. I emailed Andrew in the afternoon telling him that I'd meet him outside his work so we could have dinner out, but he didn't get it and I actually bumped into him on a side street near work, which was lucky. Andrew felt like seafood (gasp! lol), so we started to stroll down towards Clarke Quay. We bumped into some of Andrew's workmates and we stopped and had a few drinks. Then we went down to Jumbo Seafood for dinner. I ordered chilli crab and Andrew ordered yellow curry lobster. It was quite nice, but very messy. Then we had an ice-cream in bread on the way back to the hotel. I'm hoping to go back to Orchard Rd this week and to do some more house hunting, so I may have something more interesting to write about.

Cheers,
Mandi

House Hunting

Hola!

Andrew and I had a good day house hunting yesterday. We started off the day with breakfast at McD's and had a chicken sausage and egg muffin with a cold Milo. It wasn't bad, just a bit weird having chicken instead of beef. Then we went back to the hotel and waited for the real estate agent. He then took us around to a few apartment complexes. We found a place we like, and we're going to make further enquiries on it. After househunting, we went to Orchard Rd and had a look at the shops. We went to 2 different malls. Its just shops, shops, shops! We'll have to go back another day to see a bit more. We came back to the hotel and napped for a bit, then headed out to Chinatown for dinner. Chinese New Year festivities have started! We missed the fireworks and the lion dances because we were eating dinner, but we strolled through the night market and had a good time. And we saw a shop specially for my brother-in-law Alex, an entire shop devoted to Tintin!

Andrew's dinner: noodle soup, a coconut and steamed dumplings

Me enjoying my sweet and sour fish with rice

Andrew drinking his coconut

Robotic singing bunnies in Chinatown! 

The Tintin shop!

Andrew bought some magnetic stress balls at the market, then we went back to the hotel and had a late night swim in the pool. It was nice, not cold and we had the entire pool to ourselves. When we got out, it was midnight! But we slept really well after the swim.

Seeya,

Mandi